The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 18, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 01, 1997
Sibnath Basuthakur, Phoenix, AZ (US);
William Joe Haber, Tempe, AZ (US);
Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL (US);
Abstract
A spacecraft (10) body (20) located in an external magnetic field (12) has a substantially unbalanced electrical power bus (18) that generates a composite local magnetic field The electrical power bus (18) substantially surrounds an external surface (22) of the spacecraft (10). Current in the electrical power bus (18) is solar panel (14and 16) and/or battery (34) generated and can flow in different directions through different current paths. Electrical loads (58) are coupled to power converters (56) and current path switches (54) to couple the power converters (56) to the various current paths. A controller (28) takes sensor data (82), determines a required attitude adjustment torque (84), translates that adjustment torque into a composite magnetic field (86), determines an unbalanced bus current profile (88) to generate that composite magnetic field, selects a current source (90) and regulates current path switches (92) to achieve a desired attitude adjustment torque for the spacecraft (10).